Morphling
by GreenGreyBlack
Summary: Those boys were much stronger.


_**Reviews appreciated.**_

* * *

_**Morphling**_

_It was so long ago, _

_He remembers a time when he was so Sembilant to fine, as fine as could be in the Seam._

_He remembers a shadow of how he used to be, so long ago._

_A Striver, a fighter by instinct, willing to live._

_Not the drunkard suicidal Zombie he has become._

* * *

_Those boys were much stronger._

_Whether Peeta or Finnick._

_Who would have thought the Gigolo of district 4 to be such a monogamist, hopeless romantic?!_

_Who would have thought a gentle delicate Boy from Town was capable of holding up in such a battle as theirs?_

* * *

_Towners are still similar from what he remembers, so are the boys of the seam._

_Boys of the Seam were so strikingly, sickeningly similar._

_History in the seam seems to repeat itself more often than not._

_Boys of the seam are no wimps, they are so stubborn, strong ,determined and rebellious and even borderline callous, envious and prejudiced at points._

_All business, maybe too much for their own good._

_Or that is what they try to convey._

_For they are so damn weak that the mild breath can simply shake them to the core , so damn sensitive that a gesture of kindness, small as it be, can get under their skin, that they love so easily, so profoundly and they lose themselves completely._

* * *

_He had been there before Gale._

_Maysilee was so similar to Madge, he could guess._

_The same calm air, the same gentleness._

_It seems to run in the family._

_Same ability to awe you with their inner strength and prowess, same power to captivate you in their so serene Aura._

_Same foresight to see through seam's bull._

_You can never be unmoved by them, they become your everything._

* * *

_It was easy to see it when she brought the morphling._

_It was so easy to know when Gale kept denying incessantly and relentlessly that there was a thing between them._

_He'd done that before as well, he kept denying to himself all along, till it was too late._

_When he knew about them, his heart fell, for he could see the impending Tragedy brewing in store._

_He knows now that it is destiny that Towners would die because of seam boys' stubbornness, or vice versa._

_People of district 12 should have got used to it by now._

_It is a curse that consumes them all, humiliates them and then separates them in the most gruesome of ways._

* * *

_Gale's heart would never be the same._

_He knows that quite well._

_He couldn't save himself,_

_Yet he will save Gale._

* * *

_He finds him in a bar in D2, starting what to be the first of many rounds of drinking till he is so goddamn wasted to know his own name, or till he passes out._

'_Typical' Haymitch thinks_

_He takes the seat beside him on the stool_

"_It wouldn't bring her back"_

"_I don't know what you are talking about, Haymitch"_

"_Maysilee's niece, her name was….."_

_Gale put on his most impassive façade_

"_Because you loved Maysilee doesn't have to mean that I also fell in love with Madge"_

"_And who said that? I thought you said you weren't even platonic friends, actually I think you must have hated her guts"_

_It was part truth, for he knows that the seams always hate those who breach through their defences, those who thaw the ice they put around their hearts, those who can hurt them the most when they leave them behind._

_It explains his aggression towards Maysilee, Gale's towards Madge and Katniss' towards Peeta._

"_Spare me the empty talk, Haymitch, either drink with me or get to your leave"_

"_You didn't save her; you didn't even try, did you?" He knew his words were paroxysmal and had hit Gale square in the heart, knocked him out of balance for he looked Mortified._

_He couldn't breath._

"_I have done that before, you know and guess what? I still remember, the booze didn't magically wipe it out from my memory"_

"_If it is so, why haven't you stopped then? Why the hell are you bothering me now with all this? I couldn't care less for her, whether she lived or died"_

"_That's why you snapped, now? Because you couldn't care less if she lived or died, because your mind doesn't devise scenarios and scenarios of hope that she might have survived, because in your heart you know this isn't true, because your fantasy doesn't rally with what ifs, because it isn't like you love her or anything, right? It isn't like you wish it to be a nightmare that will end and you will wake up to find her still alive and kicking"_

_And the blow he has been anticipating came, full force 'damn either that kid is strong, or I have grown old, or both' _

_His eyes were now pricking with tears as blood was trickling from the corner of Haymitch's mouth._

"_Why are being so sadistic? What do you want me to say, huh? That I loved her, that it kills me that finally when I had the courage to admit that to myself she was gone, that I was responsible, that I never felt peace except with her, smiling and playing the darn piano, that everything good I had done and am doing still is driven solely from her, huh, fine you got what you wanted, you saw me crumple, now just piss off" the entire Bar was watching now._

_Once upon a time, he was as pathetic._

_He still is._

"_I don't want you to succumb to the same despair, no one knows you loved her as much, no one can help you except you, you are strong, you can pull through, it is OK to love Gale, allow yourself to grieve, for they are both worth it, for it is the only thing that will make you feel better, not the alcohol nor the Morph"_

"_I don't need Fixture, Haymitch" he said as he got up to leave._

* * *

_Gale's feelings are still too raw, maybe he will head home or to another bar, where he'd drink himself numb yet again._

_But still he'd knocked common sense into him._

_He wouldn't give up on him._

_Next time, he knows Gale will walk out on drinking._

_Cause Gale is much stronger than him._

_Gale is much smarter than him._


End file.
